The present invention relates in general to identification of physical characteristics of a human being or other animal. More particularly, the present invention relates to iris recognition.
Various technologies are used for uniquely identifying a person in accordance with an examination of particular attributes of either the person""s interior or exterior eye. One of these technologies involves the visual examination of the particular attributes of the exterior of the iris of at least one of the person""s eyes. The iris of the human eye has random patterns of striations, ciliary processes, crypts, rings, furrows and other features which had been shown capable of generating highly unique biometric templates for personal identification. In this regard, reference is made to U.S. Pat. No. 4,641,349, xe2x80x9cIris Recognition Systemxe2x80x9d, issued to Flom et al., and U.S. Pat. No. 5,291,560, xe2x80x9cBiometric Personal Identification System Based on Iris Analysisxe2x80x9d, issued to Daugman. As made clear by these patents, the visible texture of a person""s iris can be used to distinguish one person from another with great accuracy. Thus, iris recognition can be used for such purposes as controlling access to a secure facility or a bank automatic teller machine, for example. An iris recognition system involves the use of an imager to video image the iris of each person attempting access, and image processing means for comparing this iris video image with a reference iris image on file in a database.
Iris identification systems have been developed that are capable of collecting images of the iris and processing them to produce biometric templates. These templates may be used to identify individual irises with extremely low error rates, on the order of 1 in 106. The systems capture the iris images using stationary optical platforms that are often large, complex, and expensive. As a result their usefulness in many applications is limited. One such application is access to a vehicle or other asset such as a residence. Typically, a key is used to provide access to a vehicle or other asset. A remote doorlock control is one alternative to a key for controlling access to the vehicle. However, the remote doorlock control is limited by several factors. One factor is that possession of the remote device will provide access to the vehicle regardless of who has the device, so if the remote device is lost or stolen, the vehicle can easily be stolen as well. Another factor is that only a particular remote device(s) will start any given vehicle. If the device is lost or not with the vehicle user, the user cannot get access to the vehicle, even if he is the rightful user. An iris identification system would provide convenient access to a vehicle for authorized users, while preventing unauthorized users from accessing the vehicle. However, conventional iris identification systems are too large, complex, and expensive to be useful.
Although the art of human recognition systems is well developed, there remain some problems inherent in this technology, particularly the lack of a portable or handheld device specifically designed to solve the problems inherent in capturing a close-up, high-quality, properly focused image of the iris of the eye for use in granting access to an asset such as a vehicle or residence. Therefore, a need exists for a recognition system that overcomes the drawbacks of the prior art.
The present invention is directed to systems and methods for providing access to a vehicle or other asset. An exemplary system comprises and imager and a comparison controller system. The imager comprises iris acquisition means having a front surface for obtaining an image of an iris of an eye; a lens having an image plane disposed in front of the front surface of the iris acquisition means; a mirror disposed on a side of the lens opposite the iris acquisition means; an illuminator disposed along a side of the mirror; a first memory for storing an iris image obtained by the iris acquisition means; a processor for extracting a template from the stored iris image; and a communications interface for transmitting the template to the controller system. The controller system comprises a communications interface for receiving the template from the imager; a second memory for storing at least one template of at least one image of an iris of at least one person""s eye; a processor for comparing the received template with the at least one template in the second memory to identify the person; and a lock interface coupled to the processor for receiving a command from the processor responsive to the results of the comparison. The processor sends an unlock command via the lock interface to unlock the vehicle or other asset if the comparison indicates a substantial match between the received template and the at least one template stored in the second memory.
A further embodiment within the scope of the present invention is directed to a method of providing access to a vehicle or other asset responsive to the identification of a person, comprising: (a) storing image information of the iris of at least one person""s eye in a memory in a controller system; (b) illuminating an eye of an unidentified person having an iris with an imager; (c) obtaining an image of the iris of the unidentified person; (d) determining if the image is an image of sufficient quality for a step (f) of extracting; (e) repeating steps (b) through (d) until the image of sufficient quality is obtained; (f) extracting an iris template if the image is of sufficient quality; (g) transmitting the iris template from the imager to the controller system; (h) at the controller system, receiving the iris template from the imager and comparing the iris template with the stored image information to identify the unidentified person; and (i) providing access to the vehicle or other asset responsive to the result of the step of comparing.
According to aspects of the invention, access to the vehicle or other asset comprises unlocking the vehicle or other asset if the iris template substantially matches the stored image information, wherein the vehicle or other asset remains locked if the iris template does not substantially match the stored image information.